Tickets are $32 at the gate today through Sunday. Seniors (60 and older) pay $21 at the gate for any day. A season badge, good for the entire week, is $120. You may also buy tickets online, at a lower rate, by going to the tournament Web site, www.farmersinsuranceopen.com/tickets.

Military members and dependents will be admitted free with a current Department of Defense identification card. Military personnel and their immediate families also will have free access to the Military Appreciation Pavilion, located next to the 14th green on the South Course. The pavilion is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.

Field

This year’s field will consist of 156 players. Each player will play a round on the North and South courses Thursday and Friday. After the Friday cut to the low 70 players and ties, all play will be on the South Course.

Prize money

The tournament purse is $5.8 million, up $500,000 from last year. First place will be worth $1,044,000. Both amounts are records for the tournament.

Parking

Parking is free today at the Glider Port adjacent to the South Course.

Beginning Thursday, fans may park at the Del Mar Show Park or Qualcomm Stadium and take the shuttle. Shuttle lot parking is $20 per vehicle for round-trip service, which runs from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Rickie Fowler is in contention again. Tell us if this sounds familiar.

Still seeking his first PGA Tour victory after several close calls in his 2010 rookie year, Fowler shot 1-under-par 71 on the South Course on Friday and is tied for third at 8-under, three shots behind leader Bill Haas.

Fowler birdied the 16th and 17th holes to overcome bogeys on the back nine at 11 and 13.

“I feel a little bit of the jitters,” Fowler said of his first outing of the season. “I feel some nerves over some of the shots, but that’s what I live for.”

Fowler‘s standing is fairly impressive, given how erratic his driver has been this week on courses with penal rough. He hit only six fairways Friday after reaching only five on the North in his first round. He’s using a new Titleist driver after the face of his previous favorite cracked at the end of last year.

“I love it, just wrestling with it,” he said of the new driver. “It’s not the driver’s fault; it’s mine.”

Fowler is hungry for a victory after winning Rookie of the Year honors without one last year.

The calendar had barely turned to June in 2010 and Fowler felt on the defensive. He made a splash early last year, posting four top-10s in his first 16 starts.

Yet he heard some negative chatter, feeling like he couldn’t win — literally and figuratively.

Fowler, 22, was skewered by some in March for laying up on the par-5 15th while contending in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Sunday. The safe play didn’t jibe with his image of a “Young Gun.” He finished solo second.

In June, Fowler had the golf world buzzing when he led 48 consecutive holes at the Memorial. But he dumped a 5-iron into the water at the par-3 12th on Sunday and couldn’t come back from the resulting double bogey. He lost by three to Justin Rose.

“People said I tried to go pin-hunting at the Memorial,” Fowler said. “I just made a bad swing at the wrong time.”

Whatever the criticism, it was quieted in the first weekend of October. Despite the U.S. loss in the Ryder Cup in Wales, Fowler produced an electric finish in singles, birdieing the final four holes to halve his match with Edoardo Molinari.

The lift that effort gave Fowler cannot be underestimated. He could hold his head up.

“It definitely gave me some confidence, how I played down the stretch,” Fowler said. “It may have given me and my name a little more credibility. People before weren’t sure.”

In the tour’s fall series, Fowler notched three top-5s, so this week has been a continuation of his momentum.

“The main thing is to get ourselves in position to get that first one out of the way,” Fowler said, “and open up the floodgates.”